Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and one of the world’s leading journalists and commentators on international affairs, has joined CNN as the host of a weekly international news program that will air both on CNN/U.S. and on CNN International around the world, it was announced on Wednesday by Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S.

In addition to anchoring the new weekend program, Zakaria will contribute analysis to other CNN programs across CNN Worldwide. He is based in New York.

“Fareed is the best in the world at boiling down – without dumbing down – complex issues,” Klein said. “His weekly global get-together on CNN will be invaluable to viewers who are beginning to realize that, for their own personal and financial security, they urgently need to know what’s really going on in their world.”

“CNN’s global reach is such a powerful tool for understanding a world that is growing ever more interconnected,” Zakaria said. “For one hour a week we’ll shrink the planet down to a digestible size and get to know the most important people and ideas from everywhere that are affecting our viewers’ lives.”

Zakaria will continue in his role as editor of Newsweek International, overseeing all of Newsweek’s editions abroad, as well as writing his regular column on foreign affairs in the magazine.

Zakaria has served as an analyst for ABC News, a roundtable member of This Week with George Stephanopoulos and host of Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS. Before joining Newsweek, he was managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a leading journal of international politics and economics. Zakaria is the author of, most recently, The Future of Freedom, an international bestseller published in 2003 and now being translated into 20 languages. He has a new book forthcoming in May 2008. He's won numerous awards and been named to various lists, most recently the Prospect/Foreign Policy list of the world's 100 most important intellectuals. He serves on the board of Yale University, the Council of Foreign Relations and a number of other not-for-profit organizations.

Zakaria earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate in political science from Harvard University.

NOW DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER….BY YOUR “FRIENDLY” RATINGS GURU

There is no point in comparing any of the cable news broadcasts in the 8-11PM time periods this past week to the California fire coverage the week prior, as that really boosted audience viewership on all of the channels. However, this past week, slipping in some events and specials before the November Ratings Sweep started (Thursday Nov. 1 – Wednesday Nov. 28) definitely had an impact as did ESPN’s Monday Night Football - Packers versus Broncos - along with a “Cooperless” 360 broadcast all week. AC was “Congo-ing” but not in the dance way…

November Sweeps you ask – yes, the television networks and many cable channels schedule their strongest programming this month to give advertisers a month average of their programming on which to base winter advertising buys. Don’t ask why, it would take two days of arcane explanations, particularly when the practice was invented well before being able to receive overnight ratings. Do the cable news channels pay attention to it – not as much as the broadcast networks – for example, the networks will try to produce their best work, have all their top correspondents on the air and under penalty of death, all anchors of the evening news broadcasts are present. Clearly that penalty doesn’t extend to cable anchors….

In cable, we had a presidential debate showcasing the democrats with Brian Williams and Tim Russert on MSNBC (it really helped COUNTDOWN prior to the debate – viewers tune-in, in anticipation of the program and it the special edition of HARDBALL immediately following at 11PM was a plus for Chris Matthews who normally airs early to much smaller ratings, outside of primetime); CNN rebroadcast GOD’S WARRIORS Jewish segment of the three part series from 9-11PM on Halloween (to receive lower than the time period average but not a bad audience delivery considering how many times it has been aired since August); and the cable news channel also aired THE NOOSE in a special time period of 8PM on Thursday, the start of the November sweeps posting a better than average time period audience (where OUT IN THE OPEN normally airs).

ALL AUDIENCE IS ADULTS 25-54^:

8PM:

FOX News: 523,000CNN: 165,000*MSNBC: 282,000

What can I say? Bill O’Reilly had his highest audience delivery in 10 years on Halloween. And no, the tea leaves are blank on that one….OUT IN THE OPEN’S best showing was also Halloween – see why I won’t say anything? And of course COUNTDOWN had a huge audience burst the night of the debate – Tuesday which really helped the program’s week average. THE NOOSE, the CNN special on Thursday boosted 8PM on CNN by 28% over the week’s average of “OPEN.” Billo, true to form, lost substantial audience on Friday -50% from the Thursday performance and -56% off of his top Wednesday program delivery. Can we be a little snarky here in the normally unbiased world of research and think that with this Friday pattern is it date night or the early bird restaurant deals that pull viewers away from The Spin Zone (yes, yes, I know it is The No Spin Zone, but let’s be real…even Fox News’ Washington Bureau Chief said Bill isn’t a journalist).

9PM:

Fox News: 378,000CNN: 220,000**MSNBC: 136,000***

Clearly helped by a very strong lead-in, HANNITY & COLMES also had its strongest night Wednesday up against CNN’s rebroadcast of GOD’S WARRIORS and an average performing DAN ABRAMS. Debate watchers left H&C on Tuesday, but LKL had a typical audience that night. Larry’s best night was Debate Tuesday and his audience fluctuated greatly this week – this program tends to be very guest dependent for good audience numbers and is affected by ESPN on Mondays. DAN ABRAMS pretty much performed as normal when the debate audience is not included in his program average – and it shouldn’t be – specials and events should always be eliminated from the week’s average when examining regularly scheduled programming.

10PM:

Fox News: 304,000CNN: 210,000MSNBC: 161,000****

GRETA and 360 are always affected on Mondays with ESPN Football being such a big draw of typically 10-12 million viewers. GRETA had a fairly weak Monday and Tuesday due to the Debate and ESPN but bounced back strong on Halloween (sorry, no comments from this one…) and Thursday with excellent lead-ins from Fox News programming. Friday is also desertion night for GRETA with viewers but even then a “Cooperless” 360 could not top her. The only night this week 360 (with Soledad O’Brien) beat GRETA was Tuesday….debate night. This is one of the lowest averaging weeks for 360 against its competition with it only being pre-empted for the time period on Halloween. The 11PM performance that night wasn’t that far off the 10PM weekly average for 360. MSNBC Investigations/Doc Block had some good nights against 360 (Monday and Thursday) along with the debate coverage airing on Tuesday.

Was CNN at least as strong in any of the time periods this past week in comparison to the week prior to the fire coverage you ask? No.Now remember the Elton John album title, “Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player…”

Ratings Guru

*4 day average applied to 5 days – Special aired one day.**4 day average applied to 5 days – Special aired one day.***3 days average applied to 5 days – Debate and Doc Block aired two days.****4 day average applied to 5 days – Debate aired one day.^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research, Adults 25-54 LIVE+SAME DAY (LS) Fast Track Nationals.